“It was super fun! right?” Celia said to Jeff. Jeff responded “yeah,but when I got splashed in the ‘Dunk n Dunk’, it was hilarious”.
Celia and Jeff went to the carnival and were driving back home. Dunk n Dunk is a game where a person sits on a small diving board above a tall cylinder plastic pool filled with water and a big button next to it. If you hit the little button with a ball, the person on the diving board would fall inside the cylinder pool.
Celia had volunteered to help out in the carnival because they had a shortage of staff. She climbed up the Dunk n Dunk to help the kid at Carnival to pick up the toy. While she climbed, Jeff hit the button that opened the diving board and Celia fell in the tank. Jeff recalled the accident and laughed at Celia. Celia got furious and tried to pinch Jeff while she was driving. Celia was bruised due to the water pressure and force at which she dropped into the water in a small cylinder and wanted Jeff to know the pain. Right at the moment when she tried to pinch Jeff, she missed the exit A372 that she needed to take. It was already midnight, no street lights, and they continued to drive the car and decided to take the next exit..
Celia started to feel scared, she saw a sign that had a skull and some blood. Jeff asked Celia if she knew where they were but Celia started to yell and said “I don’t know, I missed the turn because of you” and blamed Jeff. Celia parked in the middle of nowhere and sat quiet to think what to do next. They noticed there were no cars behind them or ahead. They saw tall trees around them and the place was pitch dark. Car was running low on gas and could only go ~50 miles. The cell phone signal was weak. Jeff asked Celia to turn-off the car to save on gas while they figured out a route to get back to the freeway. Celia turned-off the car. Jeff lowered the windows to get some fresh air. The place was very silent. Both Jeff and Celia started to get scared. Celia was trying hard on her phone to get a signal. The map was not working due to poor signal and no internet. Meanwhile, Jeff saw something moving over the car. He felt it was some sort of gel and was scared to touch it.
Celia wanted to call someone for help, her parents were on vacation in Florida, her friends were at the “Peter Parker Pirate Pothouse” show, she couldn’t call them.
The car had a small screen where they could make emergency calls, but sadly that wasn’t working either. Jeff mentioned if they go a little further to see if they could get a cellphone signal. Celia pressed the button to turn-on the car, but the car did not start. Celia kept trying to start the car but didn’t work. Now they were even more tense. Celia’s face almost became red hot and she was sweating so much that it felt as if someone dumped ⅓ of a water bottle. Celia suggested to her brother if they can stay in the car until morning but Jeff started to cry because he saw something that looked like a creature from the show that he saw at the carnival, Gordian. Celia thought he had less sleep and felt he might be illusioning, but then a screeching sound interrupted, and now she realized it wasn’t the lack of sleep, it was all real! She got out of the car and so did Jeff to be safe. Celia had kept her car keys in the back pocket and it fell down when she got out of the car. Somehow the car got locked all by itself and now they couldn’t even get inside. Celia and Jeff had left their phones in the car. They couldn’t find the keys in the Dark. They felt it was not safe to stay there. They decided to walk and they saw a black cat making weird sounds and it started to follow them and things were very weird from then.
Celia and Jeff finally found a safe looking place in the forest but sadly in a minute they realized they were in a bats cave and to Celia’s panting, the bats in the cave fluttered around.They screamed and ran a mile, the place was dark and Celia bumped her knee very badly to a rock. She was limping and held hands with Jeff, and decided to come back to the car as it became dawn.
They walked 2 miles. When they got near the car, it was early morning. Now they could see. They noticed their car keys lying on the ground, and realized Celia might have stepped on the keys accidentally when it fell down while she got out of the car and the car might have gotten locked. The gel on the car had a sweet smell and it was honey from the beehive dripping from the tree above their car. They finally got into the car, drove a few miles and they got the cell phone signal. Both Celia and Jeff safely returned back home, but all exhausted !
The End
– Anisha Pradeep